Adult Player - Hitting with shoulder injury - lead arm usage?

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Nov 18, 2015
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Probably more relevant to post @ BBF (Baseball Fever), but that hasn't worked on Tapatalk for me for several months...

Player involved - me (@!*$#!)

Issue - Supposed to travel to Florida to play in a 4-day baseball tournament Thurs-Sun. Over the course of the past week, developed excruciating pain in my left shoulder. Urgent Care on Sunday said Shoulder bursitis (inflammation of the bursa sacs (sp?) in the shoulder joint). Have an ortho appt. this afternoon to confirm.

Question: If you're arm has a limited range of motion (say, elbow can't stray very away from body) - would you rather have this limitation on your lead arm or rear arm? (I bat RH, but I'm somewhat ambidextrous, so batting LH isn't out of the question).

Of course, if my current pain level remains unchanged, this is all irrelevant, but on the off-chance the inflammation (if it's not a partial rotator cuff tear, which was my initial self-diagnosis) lessens over the next few days, wondering what would give me the best chance of success at the plate.

Thanks for any advice to this admittedly bizarre question!

Gags
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
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Pennsylvania
JMHO... If my left shoulder was bothering me, i would prefer to bat left handed. I am also a switch hitter, with similar style from both sides of the plate. I finish with one hand on the bat. My other hand releases. When I started reading your post, the first thing that popped into my mind was the stress my follow through would place on my left shoulder if I was batting right handed. As soon as I take my right hand off the bat, all of the stress would be isolated on my left arm and especially on my left shoulder as I finish my swing. Again, this is nothing but my opinion...
 
Nov 18, 2015
1,585
113
Had the ortho appointment and x-rays - plenty of room in the joint, may be calcitic tendinitis (calcium build-up that is known to not exhibit any symptoms, until they exhibit symptoms!), or partial rotator cuff (RC) tear. My shoulder was too painful to manipulate high enough to test for strength/weakness, so that part will have to wait. Did get a cortisone shot, though. All the stories I had heard about how painful they were, as the PA explained to me, is with smaller joints (fingers / toes), where the additional fluid from the shot puts a lot more pressure on the joints. This was no worse than getting blood drawn. (Correction - the one time the nurse "wiggled" the needle while drawing blood was a LOT worse!)

It's a wood bat tourney - I'm really going to miss my -5 Demarini. As FP alluded to, I think the "initial" injury was several months ago, swinging a 34/31 wood bat in a cage, and I can't remember if it was a check-swing, or just a location that made me swing different, but something hurt in the left shoulder during the follow-through, as if the bat was suddenly too heavy. (Maybe my body just couldn't handle the amount of whip I was able to generate with my perfect swing mechanics? Maybe an unknown side effect of a cortisone shot is delusional thinking? Or an extra shot [cortisone, whiskey, 2x4...] is needed to reduce the sudden onset of cranial swelling...).

Anyway, thanks for confirming what I was thinking - LH is probably the way to go.

I know the following was intended more as a demonstration than even a drill - but I may try the method Boardmember used to promote a swing aid he had created, where the back hand (LH, in this case) is held open, and used mostly as a fulcrum. Hey - if Frazier can hit a HR no-handed, I should at least be able to make contact one-handed. (Sorry - must be the cortisone talking again.)

Time to scour the internet for LH "slap" hitter swings to study. Wally Backman, here I come...
 

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